Coming Home
by autumn midnights
Summary: Hugo and Lily's Sorting. In which James nearly gets detention, Lily acts like she's done this a hundred times, Hugo gets distracted by his own daydreams, and the Sorting Hat knows exactly where to put students. Oneshot.


_Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter._

_Author's Note: This is for two different competitions over on HPFC - the Fanfiction Tournament and The School Subjects Competition._

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The atmosphere right before the Sorting was tense; most of the eleven-year-olds, save for a few, were obviously nervous. Hugo assumed that some of them didn't even know what the actual Sorting would be like, while others were worried about whether they'd get into their preferred House. Personally, Hugo had no idea where he belonged; he was simply hoping fervently that he wouldn't be Sorted into Slytherin. Nobody in his family had been Sorted there: Victoire, Dominique, Molly, and Rose were all Ravenclaws, Freddie, Roxanne, and James were Gryffindors, and Al, Lucy, and Louis were proud members of Hufflepuff House. He didn't particularly care where he was placed, as long as he wasn't the first Slytherin Weasley-Potter.

He was so caught up in thinking about this that he didn't notice when the line of first years began filing into the Great Hall. In fact, if it weren't for Lily prodding him along, he probably would have been left behind in that small antechamber while everyone else got Sorted. Thankful for Lily, he hurried along after her, determined to stay near his cousin until her Sorting, which would be minutes before his.

She didn't seem nervous; Lily rarely was. She strolled along, waving at the members of her family as she passed, as though this was something that she did every single day. He wondered if she had an idea of where she belonged in Hogwarts. They hadn't discussed it on the train, for Lily had been much too busy talking about what she deemed more important topics of conversation - namely, how she was determined to steal the Marauder's Map from James, and ways that she could accomplish this.

The first several students seemed to be placed into their respective Houses relatively quickly. It wasn't long before they reached the only Sorting important to Hugo besides his own: Lily's. Neville Longbottom, the man in charge of the Sorting, called out, "Potter, Lily" with a knowing smile on his face; he had met both Lily and Hugo multiple times before, since he was an old family friend.

Lily sauntered up to the stool, heaving herself up on top of it. The tips of her shoes barely touched the floor, and when the hat was placed on her head it slid down to her eyes. Lily had always been quite small, although what she lacked in height she certainly made up for in confidence and personality. The hat was quiet for about half a minute - which was neither the longest nor the shortest amount of time it had taken so far - before calling out the House that Lily would be placed in. "SLYTHERIN!" it shouted, and there was a stunned silence.

"You're wrong!" James yelled from the Gryffindor table, standing up as the hat was taken off Lily's head. "She needs to be re-Sorted, there's no way that my sister is a Slytherin!" Lily merely smirked at him before heading off to the Slytherin table, looking incredibly pleased with herself. She sat down right next to a boy with pale blond hair that Hugo vaguely recognized, which set James off again. "She doesn't belong with the likes of Malfoy! She's Harry Potter's daughter, she's a Weasley-Potter, she's no Slytherin!"

The Headmistress's mouth was a thin line as she said, "Mr. Potter, I demand that you control yourself. No student has ever been re-Sorted, and we are not about to start doing that now. If the Sorting Hat has placed Miss Potter in Slytherin House, then Slytherin House is where she belongs. And if you cannot refrain from rioting during the Sorting, I will have you put in detention."

James sat down, looking very sulky as the next few people were Sorted. Once he was finished pouting, he began muttering to Roxanne, who was seated right next to him, and Hugo wished he could hear what the two of them were saying. It had to do with Lily's Sorting, he assumed, and it was rather surprising that she was made a Slytherin...or was it? As he thought about it, he supposed that he could understand why she had been placed there. She had always been cunning and sneaky, after all, with a talent for breaking the rules, but everybody had attributed it to having James as her brother.

He was again lost in his daydreams, and as a result was quite startled as Professor Longbottom called out, "Weasley, Hugo!" He jumped slightly, causing the girl next to him to snicker, and made his way up to the stool. Unlike Lily, his feet touched the floor quite easily, although the hat - which seemed abnormally large - slipped down his head as well.

_'Yet another Weasley', _the hat sighed. He would have been more startled if it hadn't been for Lucy telling him all about the Sorting process beforehand; she had walked him through it over the summer, explaining every last detail, even down to the way that the Hat would talk into a person's mind. It was still a disconcerting feeling, having a hat talk to him, but not as strange as it would have been if he didn't know. '_I used to put all the Weasleys in Gryffindor, you know, but this generation has been different.'_

_'I know,' _Hugo thought back. '_My family's spread out in all the Houses now.'_

_'But where to put you?' _it mused. '_You're not a Slytherin, I'm certain of that -'_

_'Good', _he interrupted, breathing a sigh of relief that he wouldn't be following Lily. He didn't have the guts to be placed there and deal with everybody's reactions, and he knew he'd make a horrible Slytherin as well. Besides, James would probably have a heart attack if another of his family was placed in Slytherin.

_'Gryffindor...no, I wouldn't call you a Gryffindor either. But hmm, Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff? You can be smart, if you put your mind to it, but you don't have the thirst for learning that Ravenclaw prides. Which is why I'm going to have to call you a HUFFLEPUFF!' _It screamed the last word to the whole Great Hall, and the Hufflepuff table burst into applause. Al, Louis, and Lucy were standing up and cheering for him, and they continued doing so until he came and sat down right near them.

Lucy pulled him in for a quick hug. "I'm so glad you're with us," she said happily as the last few students were Sorted. "Hufflepuff is the best, no matter what the others say. You're going to love it here - and our common room is right by the kitchens, and sometimes a couple of the older students will bring some food in from the house-elves and share it with everyone in the common room." She peered at Hugo. "Are you happy with where you've been Sorted?"

He looked around at the others, at the exuberance on Al, Louis, and Lucy's face, and the welcoming expressions on the other students nearby. A short while ago, he had been unsure of where he fit in, what House he should be in, but now, surrounded by other students and three of his cousins, he felt right. It already felt like he belonged. Hugo smiled at another first year seated across from him before responding to Lucy's question. "Yeah," he said, nodding. "This is great."

The feast was delicious, yet it seemed to pass by quickly. Before he knew it all the students were standing up, piling out the door to head to their respective common rooms. He caught a glimpse of Lily amongst a couple other Slytherins, her head thrown back in laughter at something one of them had said. She seemed to love her House just as much as he loved his, and as he began the walk to the Hufflepuff common room, his three cousins by his side, he wondered how the Sorting Hat knew.

Because it did - it knew where each student belonged, where they fit in so well. It certainly did with him and Lily, at any rate, and as he entered his common room for the first time, he realized something. Yes, he loved his parents and his sister and the house that they lived in, but coming here felt just like going home.

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**Well, this basically describes my personal canon of Lily and Hugo's Sorting - I've been meaning to write a first-years fic for a while, so I'm glad that this idea finally occurred to me. Anyway, this is a oneshot and will not be continued. Thanks for reading!**


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